Since I have found all the answers to my questions at ST, I will try once more

My wife and I will be flying from Londen to Milan. We are looking at Ryan Air. It looks as though they have a Total baggage limit of 44 lbs.(20Kg). Is that per person or per bag? Since we will be traveling from the US for a 4 week trip, we will have 2 bags each at close to the limit for BA 51 lbs per bag. Anyone know the answer??

We flew Ryanair a couple of weeks ago and it was 15kg hold baggage 10kg hand maybe currently with no handbaggage permitted it is 20kg total. They are strict we incurred £50 excess baggage charges!!

It depends when you are travelling. Up until the 1st November 2006 you can take up to 20 kgs per person in the hold and hand luggage of up to 10 kgs. Since the recent terrorist scare Ryanair have had to revise the dimensions of the carry on luggage downwards but I believe the weight is still the same. After 1st November you can only take up to 15 kgs per person in the hold.

You have to pay for the luggage you place in the hold but it is cheaper to take checked luggage if you tell them about it at the time you book your tickets. I think the cost is something like £5 each way pre-booked but £10 each way if you just turn up at the airport with your 20 kgs of checkable luggage.

The total is per person not per bag but it's worth noting that they will not let you share your weight allocation. In other words if you take 10 kgs and your wife takes 30 kg they will charge your wife for 10 kg excess luggage. I'm not sure how many bags are allowed but you can check on their website

Ryanair are notorious in this country for offering dirt cheap flights and having awful customer service. If they can charge for it, they will. Their 'no pooling luggage allowances' really irks me and it just goes to show they're concerned about money and not about having a well-loaded plane, in this case at least. In short, they'll charge you, but they should let you take it onboard.

To be fair to Ryanair (Who undoubtably have many faults) , they have probably been hit the hardest by these security measures. Their whole buisiness plan relies on the premise that the majority of passengers will have hand luggage only, and that they will be able to turn the plane around in less than 30 minutes.

I have some sympathy for Michael O'Leary's conspiracy theory that the change in bag size has been designed to hit the "budget airlines".

The problem with Ryanair is that they have a business philosophy and model which makes a lot of sense but they dare not market it in a frank and honest way.

The model is something like this: most of the costs that an airline has in running a route relate to payments that they have to make even if the planes fly empty. Ensure that your plans run full and there's profit to be made. So they drop their seat prices to virtually nothing but make you pay the statutory taxes and other charges. That way, even if they have made no profit their costs are covered. Then they earn money from all the other attendant offerings, e.g. travel insurance, car hire, hotel bookings sale of food etc. etc. and now add to the list, baggage. They know that they can make even more money the more return journeys they do so they have streamlined their turn arounds to a phenomenally short period. They do it by taking the pockets off the back of the seats (and having seat backs that don't recline). This frees up the cabin staff from checking seatbacks for rubbish. They also know that getting baggage on and off the plane costs and slows down the plane turn arounds so they have come up with a method to either discourage people from taking checked luggage or getting them to help fund their costs in handling it.

I take my hat off to them for being innovative. What I don't think they do well is to explain to people what's going on. Many passengers fly Ryanair because their flights are cheap but they don't necessarily understand that they must not expect a service similar to other airlines. I think the Ryanair advertising should be more brutal, e.g. You paid next to nothing for your seat so you'll get a seat and that's it. Everything else costs.

I think it's an extremely good bargain and we fly Ryanair all the time, but I don't expect a great experience.

Beebee

P.S: I heard a radio piece on Ryanair the other day and was astonished to learn that their staff PAY to have a job interview. I think they said prospective pilots pay £50 (can't remember if the cabin staff paid less). So if you think any of their staff are not running over with the milk of human kindness, remember this: you may have paid less than they did for your Ryanair experience.

You've hit the nail on the head. O'Leary is very frank in interviews about what customers cannot expect from Ryanair. He is open about the fact that the company hardly employs any customer service staff. You will be on hold for an hour or more, sometimes, if you call them up. It's happened to me, and it's very frustrating.

But - and this is an important 'but'- he says, and it's true, that they're passing their savings on to their customers. The majority of airline customers don't call the call centre (or don't really need to, anyway) so Ryanair put more of it into your hands - you can do all your own changes etc online. O'Leary admits that they lose bags sometimes, they mess things up sometimes, and their flights are often not as immaculately clean as other airlines' planes. If they do lose your baggage, it takes them ages to get the back to you. Sometimes they are damaged. Ryanair are by no means perfect - but they're not even trying to be. They cut corners on purpose.

But what they can do, and what they do well, is sell you a cheap ticket to almost anywhere in Europe, on a plane which is very likely to leave ontime. (Downside to this: if you're a teeny bit late, the plane just goes without you. No "last call for Mr Smith" etc.) The seat may be very uncomfortable, they will charge you a fortune for a drink, a lot of the cabin crew don't even speak English. But you'll get to Paris/Rome/Milan/Budapest, and you'll do so cheaply and relatively easily.

You're absolutely right though - they should publicise the true meaning of no frills a bit more effectively.

Ryanair Carry On

My question is that I am flying from Girona Airport (Barcelona) to Treviso (Venice). I am just looking to determine the dimension of hand luggage I can carry as I am confused with the new rules. Also what does ONE piece of handluggage, does that include a purse or can you carry a purse and handluggage.

Thanks

Thanks all. Yes it would cost 4 pounds per kilo for overweight fee. Or $374 if we take a total of 100 lbs each.
On the hand bag question, here is the quote from Ryan's website:
What is my Cabin Baggage Allowance?

Ryanair allows each passenger (excluding infants) to carry one small piece of hand baggage on board free of charge. The hand baggage must not weigh more than 10kg and be less than 55cm x 40cm x 20cm, in dimensions (restrictions apply from certain countries) Click here for details. For the safety and convenience of all passengers, hand baggage must fit underneath the seat or in the overhead compartment.
29 Days and counting!!

But do click through to the updated information. I think the dimensions have been revised downwards.

But for now, I think from Spain to Italy is the same dimensions, and I hope they stay the same way.

We flew in the last 2 weeks and it was definitely 15 kg per person NOT 20lbs as none of our bags which we paid excess for were over 20kg. As stated the hand luggage was 10lb but it wasn't actually weighed(To our delight)

What? Their website cleary states that if you fly before November 1st, 2006 you are allowed up to 20 kg of luggage. After that the checked luggage weight is 15kg.

Oh I am sure you meant this, but hand luggage is 10 kg not 10lbs.

I did mean 10kg for hand baggage, but regardless of what their website says the girl on the checkout clearly told me it was 15kg not 20kg. This was flying to Rome July 26th, and as I said we had a party of 7 with 7 bags and 5 of us were over 15kg but not over 20kg and we were charged £49.50. The weight limit differences originally had something to do with when you booked I think, as prior to a certain date of booking it was 20kg but then it was changed, but it would now seem as if they are applying it across the board and may not have changed the website.....par for the course from Ryanair from all acounts. Although that said, we expected to be overweight and therefore pay excess, it was still a cheap flight. Prior to this latest terror scare they also had the intention to charge for every bag placed in the hold (regardless of it being within the weight allowances) an additional £5, I presume this has beeen shelved due to the security restrictions.

I have to say that if I get to the airport and they have changed the weight on me (20kg to 15kg) I will be very pissed and will put up a fight.

I just checked the site and it says 15kg for all passengers who booked and paid prior to 16th March 2006(which we did) and that from 1st September there will be a charge for checked bags as well. So it seems it is 20kg and a charge for those who booked after 16th March till November but 15kg and no charge for those before that date. (See under baggage other questions) So you will neeed to check your booking date!! good luck.

I would say that absolutely the last thing you want to do with Ryanair is fight them. You will not win, and likely be left standing at an airport, having forfieted your ticket, and having to find your own way to the destination.

Ryanair have terms, conditions and rules, and enforce them all. Arrive at a checkin desk 39 minutes and 59 seconds before depature - Tough.

And as for suggestions that they might waive the €5 baggage charge for checked in luggage, I think that they will enforce it - they do not do "reasonable".

What they do do, is vey cheap flights if you are able to take advantage of early booking, inconvenient times, and remote aiports.
On the whole, I believe Ryanair is "A good thing"

Tim

Tim is right we saw another passenger arguing vociferously about this issue and he didnt win. You have to check in then if you are overweight they retain one passengers boarding card till you go and pay the amount due. you then return to check in produce the receipt and the boarding card is handed over. The check in girl(think Miss trunchbowl in the film Mathilda!...large and very scary)held her ground and he eventually realised he was going no-where if he didn't pay up. So all he achieved was a stressful start to his holiday and he provided the check in line with some much needed entertainment!! We paid up without question as we knew we were going to be overweight and in the scheme of the cost of the total holiday £50 was a drop in the ocean and not worth ruining the day for.